The Hymns and Carols of Christmas does not
necessarily endorse any advertisers. Please use appropriate caution.

The Father of Santa Claus

It
was the popular author Washington Irving (1783-1859) who gave
Americans their first detailed "information" about the Dutch Saint
Nicholas. Writing under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker,
Irving wrote the satirical A History of New York from the Beginning
of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty. Irving dedicates his
satirical "history" to
the New-York Historical Society, and makes dozens of references to an
impish, pipe-smoking Saint Nicholas who brings gifts down chimneys, thus
beginning a legend that will travel round the world. That it was
published on St. Nicholas's feast day, December 6, 1809, was no
accident.

Irving describes the Goede Vrowe as having been
made "by the ablest ship carpenters of Amsterdam, who, it is well known,
always model their ships after the fair forms of their country-women.
Accordingly, it had one hundred feet in the beam, one hundred feet in
the keel, and one hundred feet from the bottom of the sternpost to the
tafferel … full in the bows, with a pair of enormous cat-heads, a copper
bottom, and withal a most prodigious poop!"

Irving described the architect as a "somewhat religious
man … [who] … did laudably erect for a head, a goodly image of St.
Nicholas, equipped with a low brimmed hat, huge pair of Flemish hose and
a pipe that reached to the end of the bowsprit."

In describing the Dutch veneration for Saint Nicholas,
Irving wrote

"And the sage Oloffe dreamed a dream – and lo,
the good St. Nicholas came riding over the tops of the trees in
that selfsame wagon wherein he brings his yearly presents to
children; and he came and descended hard by where the heroes of
Communipaw had made their late repast. And the shrews Van
Kortlandt know him by his broad hat, his long pipe, and the
resemblance which he bore of the bow of the Goede Vrouw. And he
lit his pipe by the fire and he sat himself down and smoked; and
as he smoked the smoke from his pipe ascended into the air and
spread like a cloud overhead. And the sage Oloffe bethought him,
and he hastened and climbed up to the top of one of the tallest
trees, and saw that the smoke spread over a great extend of
country – and as he considered it more attentively, he fancied
that the great volume of smoke assumed a variety of marvelous
forms, where in dim obscurity he saw shadowed out palaces and
domes and lofty spires, all which lasted but a moment and then
faded away, until the whole rolled off and nothing but the green
woods were left. And when St. Nicholas had smoked his pipe, he
twisted it in his hatband, and laying his finger beside his nose
gave the astonished Van Kortlandt a very significant look; then
mounting his wagon he returned over the tree tops and
disappeared." Book II, Chapter V.

Note: The familiar phrase, "...laying his finger beside his
nose..." first appeared in Irving's story, but would be seen again
shortly. The meaning of the gesture is that the "story" being told,
known to be a fiction, is presented as a truth. In the same
manner, I might give 'a wink of the eye' when telling a tall
fiction, signaling to those to whom the gesture is aimed that we
are pretending that the fiction is a truth.

In Book III, Chapter II, Irving
writes:

"Thrice happy and ever to be envied little
Burgh! existing in all the security of harmless insignificance –
unnoticed and unenvied by the world, without ambition, without
vain glory, without riches, without learning, and all their
train of carking cares – and as of yore, in the better days of
man, the deities were wont to visit him on earth and bless his
rural habitations, so we are told, in the sylvan days of New
Amsterdam the good St. Nicholas would often make his appearance
in his beloved city of a holiday afternoon, riding jollily among
the tree tops or over the roofs of the houses, now and then
drawing forth magnificent presents from his breeches pockets and
dropping them down the chimneys of his favorites. Whereas in
these degenerate days of iron and bass he never shows us the
light of his countenance nor ever visits us, save one night in
the year; when he rattles down the chimneys of the descendants
of the patriarchs, confining his presents merely to the children
in token of the degeneracy of the parents."

Finally, Irving describes the retirement
years of Governor Peter Stuyvesant:

"The good old Dutch festivals, those periodical
demonstrations of an overflowing heart and a thankful spirit,
which are falling into sad disuse among my fellow citizens, were
faithfully observed in the mansion of Governor Stuyvesant. New
Year was truly a day of open-handed liberality, of jocund
revelry and warm-hearted congratulation — when the bosom seemed to
swell with genial good-fellowship — and the plenteous table was
attended with an unceremonious freedom and honest broad-mouthed
merriment, unknown in these days of degeneracy and refinement. Paas and Pinxter were scrupulously observed throughout his
dominions; nor was the day of St. Nicholas suffered to pass by
without making presents, handing the stocking in the chimney,
and complying with all its other ceremonies." Book VII,
Chapter IX

The
significance of Washington Irving in the story of Santa Claus can’t
be understated. Charles W. Jones wrote, "Without Irving there
would be no Santa Claus. The History contains two dozen allusions to
him, many of them among the most delightful flights of imagination in
the volumes. Here is the source of all the legends about St. Nicholas in
New Amsterdam—of the emigrant ship Goede Vrouw, like a Dutch
matron as broad as she was long, with a figurehead of Saint Nicholas at
the prow; here are the descriptions of festivities on N Day in the
colony, and of the church dedicated to him; here is the description of
Santa Claus bringing gifts, parking his horse and wagon on the roof
while he slides down the chimney—all sheer fictions produced by Irving’s
Salmagundi crowd."

It is interesting to note that Irving’s comic fiction,
within his lifetime, became "historical fact." Jones quotes Mary L.
Booth, writing in 1859 (the same year as Irving’s death):

The Dutch have five national festivals which
were observed throughout the city; namely Kerstrydt (Christmas);
Nieuw jar (New Year); Paas (the Passover); Pinxter
(Whitsuntide); and Santa Claus (St. Nicholas or Christkinkle
day) … but Santa Claus day was the best of all in the estimation
of the little folk, who, of all others, enjoyed holidays the
most intensely. It is notable, too, for having been the day
sacred to St. Nicholas, the patron saint of New York, who
presided at the figure-head of the first emigrant ship that
touched her shores, who gave his name to the first church
erected within her walls, and who has ever since been regarded
as having especially charge of the destinies of his favorite
city. To the children, he was a jolly, rosy-cheeked little old
man, with a low-crowned hat, a pair of Flemish trunk-hose, and a
pipe of immense length, who drove his reindeer sleigh loaded
with gifts from the frozen regions of the North over the roofs
of New Amsterdam for the benefit of good children. Models of
propriety were they for a week preceding the eventful Christmas
eve. When it came, they hung their stockings, carefully labelled
[sic], that the saint might make no mistakes, in the chimney
corner, and went early to bed, chanting the Santa Claus hymn, in
addition to their usual devotions

Saint Nicholas, good holy man!
Put on the Tabard, best you can,
Go, clad therewith, to Amsterdam,
From Amsterdam to Hispanje,
Where apples bright of Oranje,
And likewise those granate surnam’d
Roll through the streets, all free unclaim'd.

Saint Nicholas, my dear good friend!
To serve you ever was my end,
If you will, now, me something give,
I’ll serve you ever while I live.

These rhymes, Mr. Valentine tells us, continued
to be sung among the children of the ancient Dutch families as
late as the year 1851. But the custom is passing away, and the
Christmas gifts are given prosaically without legend or
tradition.

This quotation might also solve the questions raised by
two references in The History of New York, which refer to "the
great song of Saint Nicholas":

Book VI, Chapter IV [Describing the army of New
Amsterdam, raised to protect the city from the marauding Swedes of New
Sweden:]

""…Then the Van Hoesens of Sing Sing, great
choristers and players upon the jews harp; these marched two and
two, singing the great song of St. Nicholas."
[emphasis added]

Book VI, Chapter VIII [Further describing the
battle with the Swedes]:

"At another place were collected on a rising
knoll the valiant men of Sing-Sing, who assisted marvellously in
the fight by chanting forth the great song of St. Nicholas…."
[emphasis added]

Irving never describes the words to "the great song of
Saint Nicholas" with sufficient accuracy to permit identification of the
song in question. Perhaps Miss Booth’s verse (above and also
reproduced in Anderson’s broadside on the next page) is that song.